Hope
by LadyDomo
Summary: After the battle with Sasori, sakura is sent on an urgent mission to suna to assist the three sand siblings. Problems arise as Gaara aged to a baby with signs of the Shukaku returning. its up to sakura to save Gaara and provide hope to all of Suna, along with solving her own problems(not good at summaries) m for language and other content.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello~**

 **Ive decided to write GaarSaku story for your entertainment! If you wish for any other couples or stories please let me know! This story also takes place after the battle with Sasori. Enjoy~**

 _Inner sakura_

 **Thoughts**

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Sakura panted heavily looking around her room, her body was covered in a cold sweat she sighed before sitting up and rubbing her face. Her nightmares have been getting worse as the days go on the battle of Sasori continued to haunt her. She stretched before walking towards her shower to get ready for her day. She emerged from the shower with steam exiting her bath room following her slightly before disappearing.

She decided to styled her hair in low pig tails for the day, she wore a black top with a key hole in the front on her chest and no sleeves showing her tone arms. Her top clung to her form ending right at her waist were she wore crismon capri pants that were skin tight and black heels similar to the hokage. Her family crest on her back shown proudly. She hummed happily as she left her house.

Sakura smiled towards her neighbors and her village as she made her way to the Hokages office. She spotted hinata walking down the street before she could say hi she saw the purple hair woman smile and wave towards Sakura's own blonde hair teammate who blushed and ran towards Hinata. Sakura happily smiled at the fact that maybe Naruto and hinata have finally admitted their feelings for another one. Choosing not to interrupt the amount she continued towards the Hokage's Tower.

"Sakura- _chan.._ " Genma said as sakura approached the doors that lead to the hokage tower Kakashi next to him nose deep in his book. He looked and spotted his former student walking towards them. Sakura smiled at the two males unaware of Genma stares.

"Sakura, how are you this day?" Kakashi said as he put the book away in his pouch taking in her clothes noticing she didn't wear her usual attire. Meaning she had the day off from the hospital. Sakura turned towards the sliver hair male.

"Im doing well Kakashi, I was hoping Shishou had some missions for me." she said as she crossed her arms. They agreed after Suna that Sakura and Naruto no longer had to call him sensei seeing they had different sensies now and worked as team. "What are you two up to today." She asked them before Kakashi can voice his disapproval of her trying to work when she should be relaxing.

"Nothing really, we should get going though. We need help Mrs. Takahashi cross the street. Come on Genma." Kakashi said as he yanked Genma away from his former student as he was getting closer and closer to her. "Bye Sakura have a good day" he said as he pushed Genma away who protested once he realized what was occurring. Sakura waved at them confused before going inside the tower.

She reached the top floor knocking on her shishou door, before entering into the room. She stood confused when she saw Shizune looking worriedly at Tsunade who was muttering to herself before slamming her hand on her desk.

"Shishou?" Sakura said as she entered the room fully. Tsunade looked at the pinkette before shaking her head "Sakura you have the day off why are you here?" she said sternly and began writing freecely and crossing what looked like names off a list.

"Eto…I came here for a mission but it seems like something is bugging you? I can always come back." Sakura offered as she waited.

"Tsnuade -sama perhaps she is the only one. Shes qualified liked you and I are so this will be our best bet." Shizune said after a moment of silence in the room. Tsunade sighed and began to rub her temples.

"Sakura when was your battle with Sasori?" she asked, Sakura remained quiet. **Was it four weeks ago?** She thought to herself. "Do you think you can handle long term missions are you capable of going back to Suna, are you in the right mind set." Tsunade asked as she stood up and walked towards her apprentice. Waiting for her answer patiently as she stared at her judging her posture and face.

"It was about four weeks ago and I think a long term mission would be nice I need a change of pace and I don't mind going back to Suna. And are we really talking about my mind set Shishou?" Sakura answering the hokage who nodded her head at each answer. "Whats going on Shishou?" Sakura asked. Tsnuade leaned on her desk her back towards the window.

"Suna, they request a qualified medic to assist them with a urgent issue. However I can not give you details. If you decided you want this mission you may go." She said as she walked back to her desk satisfied with her students body language. "However if you get there and believe you can not handle it you _will_ leave _Immediately._ Myself and Shizune will then go instead. We don't want to harm our relations with Suna. Do you understand Sakura?" Tsunade finished as she leaned on her desk arms supporting her face as she looked into Jade eyes.

Sakura looked back into Tsunade eyes and turn towards Shizune who looked at her with a blank face. 

_It be nice to leave by ourselves Sakura, we haven't had any missions since the battle with Sasori._

 **Yeah, we can even see Temari and visit Chiyo-baasama's grave. We can handle whatever the mission is im sure.**

With a determine look on her face, she smiled and nodded to Tsunade, "When do I leave Tsnuade-sama?" Sakura asked happily, eager to leave.

Tsnuade smiled slowly and hander her a S rank mission folder. Sakura stared wide eye at it, **what the hell is going on in Suna that they need this mission rank folder.** _Must be urgent._ "You leave immediately to Suna pack your bags and go ill tell them to expect you tonight or tomorrow morning depend on when you leave." Tsnuade said as she looked down at her paper work and began filing and writing. Sakura turned and began to head to the door. "Oh, and Sakura. What ever you see and what ever you do. You will not tell anyone the essence of your mission. Read that the minute you get home and _burn_ it."

"Hai shishou. Thank you for the opportunity and mission." Sakura smiled as she left the room. The door closed softly with a soft clicked. Shizune sighed quietly before going to the couch on the side of the room.

"That scroll doesn't tell her whats really going on in Suna Tsnuade-sama, why didn't you let her read the letter?" Shizune as she laid down comfortly.

"It'll be more interesting this way. Beside she will be able to handle it." Tsnuade said as she stood and folded the letter. She walked over to a messenger hawk and tied it on the foot before it flew away. "Good luck Sakura." She whispered as she turn back around and sat her desk continuing the paper.

 **SAKURA'S HOUSE**

Sakura smiled happily as began packing summer clothes and stored them in a scroll she continued to hum putting different things in different scrolls. She happily looked around and grab the mission scroll Tsnuade had given her.

 _Might as well read it now before we go._ **Hokage-sama, we urgently request you or someone to your level to come to Suna Immediately. Kazekage-sama as fallen ill. The letter attached this will explain in greater detail. Please hurry. Respectfully Temari-san**. _What letter Sakura?_

Confused Sakura looked around and frowned and there was no letter attached. **Maybe shishou didn't give it to us on purpose?** _That is always a possibility. But why?_ Sakura shrugged before looking over the scrolls she stored gear in. **1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. I have everything I leave. Now to get change and leave.**

Sakura grabbed the clothes she had laid out. She emerged in a Crimson crop top with a white circle proudly in the front, the top was sleeveless but was basically a turtle neck. she wore black cargo pants and her signature boots. She grabbed her red pouch and strapped to her waist showing the two pouches one on each hip and her scrolls strapped behind her in a row. She grabbed her fingerless gloves and looked at the white markings on the palm of each glove that allowed her to summon either a shuriken or a Kunai without reaching into her pouch.

She then walked towards her room and in the corner was her sword (picture the one Sasuke owns) she smiled as she picked it up. She removed the sheath revealing a chrome sliver colored blade with the Haruno crest etched onto it near the handle. She gripped the handle admiring the crimson red wrapping. Below the handle was a single white striped that a sakura blossom charm on a string that dangled down before it was nothing but red wrapping.

Once she fully removed it she stared at the middle of the sword, more etching deep within the sword revealed the words _Crimson Blossom_. Staring at the sword and putting the sheath back on it before resting it on her back. Lastly she walked to her head back and tied it at her neck. looking around once more she saw the mission file laying on her bed. She calmly walked over to it and grabbed it. she continued toward her kitchen and set it on fire watching it burn.

Smiling she left a note on her counter in case the boys would come by while she was gone. She explained how to water what plants she had and encouraged them to eat any and all food in her fridge not knowing when she would return. She calmly explained she would be on a simple mission and would try to keep in touch. Smiling again she left the room and made her way to Suna.

 **SUNA GATES 11:26 PM**

Sakura smiled as she saw the gates appear before her. **I'm glad my training had built my stamina and charka supply by a shit ton or this would've taken two days instead of one**. She thought as she touched the Diamond on her forehead. She stopped running once she guards and calmly inform them of her mission and reasons of being in Suna.

The minute she mention medic and requested by Temari the Guards urged her to follow them quickly. They began to ran towards what look the Kazekage tower for Suna. Sakura confused followed them down instead of up the stairs. **Strange, I thought Gaara or Temari would see me first he must be really sick if were going underground.** _Were probably going to his private quarters for when hes sick here ya know because of his tailed beast._ her inner replied equally confused.

Once the reached a double door they banged on it loudly. Sakura looked around noticing you needed a code to get inside. They both bowed before leaving her and returning to the gates with the other guards who watched it while they escorted her.

The door was sung open and Temari stood before her. "Sakura! Thank god!" she said as she hugged her and grabbed her hand dragging her inside.

"Temari-san, whats going on?" Sakura said as she looked around the white hallways clearly resembling a hospital floor. Temari's gripped tighten.

"Its Gaara….Tsnuade's letter said she didn't give you all the details because she felt you would need to see to believe…but after the fight with the Akastuki something strange happened." She said as she stopped in front of the room and turning towards her.

"Gaara….he started to age.." she slowly looking around nervously.. **Theres nothing wrong with aging?** _Maybe hes fucking old now?_ her inner replied rudely sakura picturing her sitting down annoyed and bored. "he started to age _backwards…_ he's a _baby_ now….we don't think he'll continue to age backwards because hes been that way for awhile. He may be one or younger were not sure…" she finished.

Sakura blinked and blinked and stared. Her inner standing up now mouth open in shock. _He's a BABY?!_ **What the fuck….** Temari nodded at her face. "Take me to him." Sakura said truly wanting to see if for herself. Temari grabbed her wrist before she opened the door.

"Another thing….His sand…its like he has shukaku back…it does stuff on its own." Temari said before letting go of her wrist and nodded. Sakura continued to stare before breathing deeply walking inside.

There in contained square was a one year old crimson boy who cried loudly at all the machines hooked up to him, his sand blowing around in the contained area all the doctors on the other side of the plastic safe from the sand. Wide eye sakura stared at the crimson head child. The child continued to cry trying to move his arms and legs from the bed that had him strapped down.

"What the hell is going on?" sakura immediately yelled as she walked into the room. Gaara's crying continued on only louder. The doctors and nurses looked her the male doctor obviously in charge gave her a disgusted face.

"We were hooking up and testing on him and he started to thrash and his sand _attacked_ us. Now who the hell are you girl." He spat as he crossed his arms and stared her. Temari stood to the side curious to see how Sakura would handle this.

"Someone who can do your job better than you. Now get the hell out of my way before I _make_ you." Sakura replied back calmly as she stared hard at the man. He continued to stand there and she smiled sweetly confusing him. she reached forward and grabbed his shoulder applying pressure before he screamed out and crumbled down in pain.

Sakura walked past him and towards the clear wall where the one year old continued to cry she looked to the left and saw the door. She looked around the room and saw a white rag that had yet to be use. She tied it around face using it as a mask to block out the sand. She turned the knob and walked in push against the sand.

A light layer of charka formed around her skin, protecting and healing whatever wounds she received from the sand. when she reached Gaara she began removing the needles that was put in Gaara. She ignored the doctors protest as he banged against the wall yelling. She slowly hummed a mellow tune calming down the baby.

Once she finished removing all the needles he calmed down and she removed the straps. She picked him and up quietly and rocked him back and forth. He stared into her eye and sniffled. The sand finally toned down to a gentle breeze.

"Hello little Kazekage-sama." She whispered as he reached for her face and smiled.

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 **Thoughts? Questions? Concerns? Read and review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**ellooo! I got amazing feed back from you guys! Thank you and keep the comments coming whether you liked the story or not! Feed back is important! Also don't worry this WILL be a love story ;) Enjoy!**

 _Inner sakura_

 **Thoughts**

 **0000000**

Sakura smiled at the little boy in her hands before walking out the contained room. When she looked up the nurses and the doctors were in tears. One of the nurses, an elder woman walked towards her drying her tears.

"Thank you…thank you…" she cried as she grabbed her hand. "We were so worried.. we didn't know how to handle him, the sand made it so difficult." She cried again, one of the younger nurses nodded her head in agreement.

"We don't know how to help our Kazekage…Please Sakura-hime…help us!" she cried and bowed her head, the other nurses cried and bowed to her as well. Sakura wide eye looked around the room.

 **I just calmed him down…** _they must have been struggling for awhile by themselves and must of felt so much pressure..._ **imagine if this were to happen to Shishou and we couldn't do anything….** Sakura nodded towards them slowly and smiled. The male doctor who yelled her walked towards her the older nurse moved out of his way.

He fell to his knees and bowed. "Please Sakura-hime…we were so helpless we watched our dear Kazekage age backwards with no way of stopping it…we were scared that if he continued to cry he would age more…please…..save Gaara-sama!" he pleaded and sob on the floor. Sakura looked towards Temari who was also crying silently.

 _The stress…and to be so helpless…we know what that is like…_ Sakura went to her knees cradling Gaara to her chest. She put her hand on his shoulder and smiled. "I'll help you save him…please stand up." She said as she grabbed his hand and helped him rise. he nodded and stood up with her, with another encouraging smile she turned towards the rest.

"Hello. Im sorry for coming so late. I'm Haruno Sakura, apprentice of Lady Tsundae the fifth Hokage of Kononhagakure. Please take care of me!" She announced strongly and bowed towards the nurses and Temari. Everyone smiled in relief.

The tender moment was then ruin by the door slamming open. Everyone's head snapped towards the door, there panting heavily stood Kankuro. He eargly look around the room sweat glistening on his forehead. "Haruno! You made it! and Gaara?" he asked as he walked towards her and stared at the baby in her hands. "Thank god he stopped crying…" he said softly. Sakura looked around confused.

"Why do you all say that? What happens if he cries?" Sakura asked. Kankuro looked up and stared into her eyes. He nodded towards the door and walked towards it. Sakura followed still holding Gaara, as she walked into the hallway she heard Temari dismiss the medic team claiming they need to sleep and spend time with their love ones before she too left the room and caught up to Sakura.

They continued up the stairs to what seem like forever to Sakura. Finally Kankuro opened a door and sakura saw a office and windows behind it. **Suna looks beautiful at night.** She thought as she stared at the windows. She looked towards Kankuro who sat the desk in the center of the room. **This must be where the Kazekage works.** Temari walked past her and sat at the corner of the desk and gestured towards the chair in front of it. Sakura walked towards it glad to sit down for once.

"A lot has happened after Gaara was taken…." Kankuro began as he stared into Sakura's eyes. **a near death experience must change a man I don't remember him being so serious** _…..along with his brothers current situation im not surprise._ "Gaara…after the shukaku was taken from him…and then Chiyo-sama brought him back…something changed in him." Sakura snapped out her inner conversation and focused on the man before her.

"He was restless…he still wouldn't sleep it wasn't _natural_ to him…but our doctors figured he should start considering he no longer had that _thing_ in him." Kankuro sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Gaara agreed and began to somewhat sleep but..it just…." Kankuro trailed off staring at the baby.

"It got worst…" Temari said as she looked towards the ground. "His sand began moving on its _own_ Gaara was unaware it was even happening for the few hours he slept…we didn't even know…until I fell down the stairs…the sand tripped me…" she said as she rubbed her arms. "I remember hearing Gaara scream and I looked up the stairs and the sand went fleeing back to him." she whispered looking towards Sakura.

"Gaara had a night terror…he never had those...it caused his sand to lash out till he calm down...after that first incident the sand never bother Kankuro and I. we thought it was a one time thing. A week or so passed and Gaara was looking _younger_ we thought the sleep was doing him some good until one morning Gaara said he was tired and wanted to sleep the whole day. We figured it wouldn't hurt since he never had the luxury of lazy day." Temari scoffed as she turned away wiping a tear.

"I went to his room to get him to eat something. We couldn't let him slip into a coma haha.." Kankuro gave a dry laugh. "I pulled his cover and Gaara had shrunk to a kid. He looked 12. I ran out the room and grabbed Temari. When we awoke him he was so _scared._ " Kankura stopped and breath deeply. "He asked why Temari and I looked so much older and why would we let him sleep. Confused Temari asked him why he thinks he shouldn't sleep and why he thought we looked older."

"He said because of the Shukaku…that he couldn't sleep he didn't want to harm anyone.. and that we shouldn't _look_ old yet we weren't even _chunin_ so why were we messing around." Temari whispered again looking hard at Gaara. "I got worried and asked him what recently had happen. He said we had just gotten back from Konoha that Father would be angry along with Baki if we kept being stupid…he had forgotten everything.." Kankuro stood up and walked towards Temari, resting his arm on her shoulder letting her cry for a bit and letting Sakura soak in the information.

 _He had aged backwards the more he slept the more he aged…no wonder they didn't notice._ **Imagine going to wake up Naruto and him being 12 not remembering anything. All the memories the training all his new friends. To feel like that lonely kid…** _Not even knowing that you just died…_

"Kankuro and I decided to henge into what we looked like as kids to lessen the shock for Gaara saying we wanted to freak him out. But he gave us a blank look. he still didn't know emotions at this point having recently gotten into contact with Naruto…he was still learning." Temari continued once she calmed down. She stood and grabbed Gaara gently, going towards the couch in the room before settling down there with him Sakura turned towards Kankuro who took Temari's spot. Clearly this has become to much for her.

"He stood up and grabbed his chest he said it hurt to much that it didn't feel _right_. We asked what was wrong and he said Shukaku he was weaken." Sakura's head snapped up in alarm, Kankuro nodded towards her in agreement. "We asked what he meant and he shook his head. he got a cold sweat and fell to the _ground_ Sakura….he fell…and we didn't know what to do. We caught him and tried to calm him down…" he shook his.

"it didn't work…he kept muttering to himself…that he was whispering weakly that he was in pain….that _thing_ in pain! Can you believe it?" Kankuro shouted clearly upset. "Anyway he blacked out..i picked him and ran to the area we were just in. its an emergency area for Gaara incase he gets injured or sick…he went into a coma and kept aging backwards faster and faster."

"When he woke up he was finally 3 years old. He had emotions then he knew what sadness was." Temari said from the couch Sakura turned towards her sadden by her state. "he started to cry. We fed him bathe him did everything but he was crying and we noticed he was still ageing. He kept clutching to his chest and said 'it hurts Temari-chan it hurts.' He kept asking for our uncle, his caretaker at the time. We told him he was with his father discussing a mission." Sakura looked back towards Kankuro who walked back to the desk looking at the paper work there. Sakura guessing that Temari would finish the story she walked and sat next to her on the couch.

"Finally he turned 2 and I sent a message to the Hokage asking for help. By the time you got here we guessed he was around 1 or younger and the doctors wanted to do test and well you know what happen then." Temari finished as she looked towards Gaara.

"It's late." Sakura said after a moment of silence as she stood up, she helped Temari up and took Gaara and looked towards Kankuro. "Its about time we all went to sleep. We should discuss this tomorrow." She finished as she touched Kankuro's shoulder sending a calming Charka through him. He nodded and stood.

"Youll stay with us Sakura. We have a guest room with a crib so you can be near him. if that's okay?" Temari asked softly, her face pale with heavy bags under eyes. Sakura nodded and followed them out. She smiled softly at Gaara who continued to stare into her deep eyes.

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 **Hopefully you all enjoyed the second chapter! Please share your thoughts and opinions! It encourages me to post NEW chapters more often!**

 **Read and review**

 **Thank you to my first reviewers!**

\- **_Jacpin2002_**

\- **_Nanami_**

\- **_Sakura-Fairy-Tail_**

\- **_Tanuki_**

\- **_Ekari_**


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